After reading Mary Truong’s recent blog post in which she outlined “5 reasons why performance management is good,” and related this to her own work experience, I was prompted to reflect on my experiences with performance management. I’ve had a few performance reviews in my day, and looking back on it now I can see that these reviews are indeed an effective tool in outlining company expectations and providing feedback so that employees are aware of what areas they are meeting or exceeding expectations in, and which areas of their performance are in need of improvement. However, I will say that being on the employee side of a manager-to-employee discussion is quite awkward. As someone who takes criticism very personally, having my performance critiqued by someone that I know well can be uncomfortable to say the least. Although, what I find even more uncomfortable is having to critique others, so I dread the day that I may have to evaluate someone’s work and discuss it face-to-face with them. But as unenjoyable as I personally find performance reviews, I do recognize their value in the workplace and I encourage companies to adopt performance management practices to establish company objectives and monitor employees’ execution of tasks.